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Sunday, August 21, 2005

How Did You Like My Book?

" Let's suppose that you died today and went to Heaven. God greets you warmly and after some pleasantries asks, 'So, how did you like My Book?'

Most of us would have to respond, 'Well, I never had time to read all of it.'

And that's curious, isn't it--because God gave us time. But of course we fill the time He gave us with lots of other things. Think about this: God gave us time and God gave us His Book. He wants us to take some of the time He gave us to read the Book He gave us."

This was the brief message given in worship today by Ted Cooper, author of the Bible in 90 Days course. Today was Rally Day--the traditional beginning of the new Sunday School year. We are continuing to register people for the classes that we are offering in conjunction with our 20th anniversary celebration. There are now more than 100 people committed to reading the entire Bible in 90 days. I'm so glad I ordered more Bibles last week--I now have 120 Bibles, which (please, God!) should be more than enough.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the response to the program. With so many different groups and people to keep up with I am going to need to spend more time figuring out how to effectively support our group leaders. I even have several people that want to try to do the course on their own because they can't meet with any of the groups that have formed. I'm thinking I should form an "Independent Study Group" for these folks and email them once a week encouraging their efforts and answering any questions they may have along the way. I think that this is a hard goal to achieve by yourself so some mutual support would help them.

Next week all the groups will get their Bibles and notebooks and begin meeting. And the pressure is on me, too, because I am leading the staff group and committing to the program as well. Thanks to those of you in the blogosphere who have expressed interest in this project--it is a great source of support. My aim is to post one update a week (if there is something to report) as we go along on how the groups are going.

Ezekiel will be a trip! Seriously, the ancient rabbis used to say that you shouldn't read Ezekiel until you were at least 35 years of age because they thought he was so weird that only those with some age and experience could properly understand him.

I think you'll be amazed by the changes that will take place in your church when this many folk commit to studying scripture. Authentic study of scripture is absolutely life changing, individually and corporately. I can't wait to hear all about it as time goes on.

Yes, I think a lot of Church- goers wish they were more biblically literate. Some don't go to bible studies for fear they will be "outed" as the ONE person in the whole group who has no clue what's going on. I think a program like this gives everyone a chance to start on the same page, (literally) and have structured support and achievable goals. Keep us posted.